Polymeric resins are widely used for the separation and purification of various target compounds. For example, polymeric resins can be used to purify or separate a target compound based on the presence of an ionic group, based on the size of the target compound, based on a hydrophobic interaction, based on an affinity interaction, or based on the formation of a covalent bond.
In the biotechnology industry, large-scale separation and/or purification of various biomolecules such as proteins, enzymes, vaccines, DNA, RNA, and the like are of great interest. The vast majority of the polymeric resins used for the separation and purification of biomolecules are based on either styrene/divinylbenzene copolymers or crosslinked agarose. The hydrophobic backbone of styrene/divinylbenzene copolymers can be prone to non-specific interactions with a number of materials leading to impure products. Although crosslinked agarose resins are generally less susceptible to non-specific interactions, these materials tend to be fairly soft gels and can have relatively low capacity for many biomolecules.
Improved polymeric resins are needed, particularly for separation and purification of biomolecules.